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INDI Library v2.0.6 is Released (02 Feb 2024)

Bi-monthly release with minor bug fixes and improvements

Driver OnStep (LX200 like) for INDI

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  • Thank you received: 71
James,

we have an Old Story from Mr "Jean de La Fontaine" called the Haze and the Turtle.
So going slow and safe is also my view, otherwise I would have pushed to Indi Directly.
We can wait for pushing to Master for two reasons:
- Lamba use most probably do notice nothing because they do not use advanced features
- Advanced users can test your or my branch and test it if they want.

I will have a look on yout updated Own-Goto soon
2 years 7 months ago #73718

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James,

First test of your onw-goto is promising.
Everything worked fine.
I continue testing and review your code

2021-07-20T18:17:10 Shutdown complete.
2021-07-20T18:17:10 Ekos stopped.
2021-07-20T18:17:09 INDI devices disconnected.
2021-07-20T18:17:06 Dome parked.
2021-07-20T18:16:49 Parking dome...
2021-07-20T18:16:48 Mount parked.
2021-07-20T18:16:47 Warning: mount park operation timed out on last attempt.
......... a lot of waiting since meridian flip before parking
2021-07-20T18:14:53 Warning: mount park operation timed out on last attempt.
2021-07-20T18:14:52 Parking mount in progress...
2021-07-20T18:14:52 Warning: mount park operation timed out on attempt 4/5. Restarting operation...
2021-07-20T18:14:51 Parking mount in progress...
2021-07-20T18:14:51 Warning: mount park operation timed out on attempt 3/5. Restarting operation...
2021-07-20T18:14:50 Parking mount in progress...
2021-07-20T18:14:50 Warning: mount park operation timed out on attempt 2/5. Restarting operation...
2021-07-20T18:14:49 Parking mount in progress...
2021-07-20T18:14:49 Warning: mount park operation timed out on attempt 1/5. Restarting operation...
2021-07-20T18:13:48 Parking mount in progress...
2021-07-20T18:13:47 No jobs left in the scheduler queue.
2021-07-20T18:13:46 Job 'Navi' is complete.
2021-07-20T18:13:25 Job 'Navi' capture is in progress...
2021-07-20T18:13:25 Job 'Navi' slew is complete.
2021-07-20T18:10:17 Job 'Navi' is slewing to target.
2021-07-20T18:10:14 Mount unparked.
2021-07-20T18:10:12 Dome unparked.
2021-07-20T18:10:06 Unparking dome...
2021-07-20T18:10:05 INDI devices connected.
2021-07-20T18:10:05 Ekos started.
2021-07-20T18:10:00 Scheduler started.
Last edit: 2 years 7 months ago by Alain Zwingelstein.
2 years 7 months ago #73726

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Hello,
I just tested with my setup.
I am unable to unpark the mount.
With the azwing driver the position of the mount on the map is correct and I can unpark the mount.
With the james-lan driver, the position of the mount on the map is wrong and I cannot unpark the mount.
I deleted the xml files just in case.
I will find out where it can come from.
2 years 7 months ago #73732
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Serge,

Strange, I just made a test to reproduce your observation.
When I start Kstars and then Ekos I see the telescope where it should be and I have no problem with unparking.
Which xml files are you speaking about?
2 years 7 months ago #73734

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It's ~/.indi/OnStep_config.xml

My park position is 0° alt and 0° az (telescope horizontal).
For the two drivers, in the mount tab, position is bad before unpark. But the reticle is good with your driver and not in  the james driver.
It's very strange...
Same issue with Skychart (Cartes du ciel): Position is ok with your driver, not ok with james driver.

PS: I use:
merge = refs/heads/own-goto
 
Last edit: 2 years 7 months ago by Serge CLAUS.
2 years 7 months ago #73740
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I'm confused: The only reason it shouldn't update are common to both as far as I can see from a diff. Either it should get a location in UpdateScopePosition, or it should fail in both cases, as that code is at the very front, do you have any: Error reading RA/DEC. messages?

I'd very much like to get a debug log if you don't mind, because I can't seem to reproduce what you have.

I do discover some odd behaviour with parking on a (fake) alt-az mount, namely that it seems sometimes to goto after an unpark?! (To where it was before the park.) Never have seen that on an EQ. I'm looking at it, but a log would be great to try to figure it out. I do seem to recall that as being something a while back though that I'd very occasionally encounter on startup?
Last edit: 2 years 7 months ago by james_lan.
2 years 7 months ago #73743

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@James and Serge,

I could reproduce your strange behavior.
After OnStep ColdStart and if Telescope was Parked I receive the Status "nNPH" which is At Home and Parked.
I checked OnStep response on :GR# and :GD# and effectively the coordinates are wrong RA=0 DE=0
After unparking whatver I do it in a terminal or from Kstars I get the right Parking RA/DE

So it is definitively not related to the driver.

Have a try to connect with my driver after OnStep Coldstart
2 years 7 months ago #73833

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Dear Alain, I've the Problem that I can't connect to my OnStep STM32F303 via KStars.
My System is a raspi 4 8G and I#M running Astroberry with KStars 3.5.4 and the last indi driver 1.9.1.

Since my last Update of Astroberry the System never worked again. My soft skills are limited.
My mount always stuck at DE=0 when I try to connect with Ekos and will not point to Polaris (Park Position).
I then have no possibility to control the mount.
In the indi tabs the indicator always become yellow and dont execute a command as it was previously the case.
The mount OnStep-Status tabs were left empty.  The firmware figures were shown.
I cannot start an align procedure through indi.

What I discovered is that the traffic through my /dev/ttyUSB0 sends continuously the following messages what seems to be very strange.

/dev/ttyUSB0
44 48 2D 4F 41 47 2C 33 23                         DH-OAG,3#
/dev/pts/2
3A 47 58 59 31 23                                  :GXY1#
/dev/ttyUSB0
44 48 2D 4F 41 47 2C 33 23                         DH-OAG,3#
/dev/pts/2
3A 47 58 59 31 23                                  :GXY1#
/dev/ttyUSB0
44 48 2D 4F 41 47 2C 33 23                         DH-OAG,3#
/dev/pts/2
3A 47 58 59 31 23                                  :GXY1#
/dev/ttyUSB0
44 48 2D 4F 41 47 2C 33 23                         DH-OAG,3#
/dev/pts/2
...
...
...


I have set up in my Onstep config.h file some features like a DewHeater function called "DH-OHG".
Do you think that there is a problem with the OnStep firmware and a miscommunication with the indi driver that causes the failure?
I cannot understand why Onstep is sending those figures over the USB port, also because the Heater was switched off.

Perhaps I should ask Howard or Khalid if they know what could be the Problem.

All the best and thanks to your help and work since years as I read.
Joe

OnStep Firmware is 4.24g   
Hardware : STM32 Bluepill with upgraded STM32F303 chip

File Attachment:

File Name: Config.h.txt
File Size:26 KB
Last edit: 2 years 7 months ago by Joe. Reason: Forgot to mention that I use your last Indi-driver, Azwing github: github.com/azwing/indi
2 years 7 months ago #73967
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Yes, that's related to the dew heater, and the new detection of features.
The gxy1 call should return the feature name and type.


It appears to be looping, but I'm not in front of the computer to look at the code. (Quickly looking at azwing's repo, I don't see anything that I would think could cause it, except repeated calls to update properties?) For a temporary solution, you might try removing that feature?
The following user(s) said Thank You: Joe
2 years 7 months ago #73968

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Bingo, after I have disabled the feature section, I got control over the OnStep STM32F303 controller.
Thanks for this hint.
I have to find another solution for my DEW Point heater. Something must be changed within Ekos or KStars that this happend. The systems runs quite stable without any failure before I updated kstars with Astroberry.
Anyhow....
I'm planning to switch to MaxESPV3 controller where I can control a field-rotator with the second Focus stepper. The PCB is already fully equipped for testing. The Advantage of STM32 is the very low power consumption in comparison to MaxESPV3.
Thanks again James

Joe
2 years 7 months ago #74025

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Apologies for the long updates. Real life things I don't want to go into here.

There was a pull request which may help some cases regarding reporting status on V4

Right now testing my own-goto it's working well with git versions of Kstars.

I did discover an odd bug related to meridian flips on altaz: It would keep trying to do them, but in my branch I've removed the capability being reported by default and while it can trigger it only seems to once. Working on a patch to add detection to Kstars. Now the branch only reports if it's non altaz. Which seems to make it only do it once.

Right now I'm 2/6 through testing (working on 3/6) v3/4/5 EQ/Altaz before I make a pull request. Unfortunately power is out so the branch is not up to date right now. (Will probably see about X, but I don't think I have a near current pull) so far it and Kstars are working well, but Kstars still sometimes considers slew complete immediately. Fortunately it handles it ok now.  (Mind I've got updates at something like 25ms to try to reproduce that.) Earlier Kstars did not handle that well.

I would like to get this merged before 1.9.2, if possible given the fixes. Not sure when @knro plans to release that (I would imagine very soon.) So if people can test it asap when I post next, I would massively appreciate it. If not, that's fine. 

 
2 years 6 months ago #75088

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The next INDI release is planned within a week, given no major issues.
2 years 6 months ago #75092

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